Uneducated
The Power of Lifelong Unlearning For A Generation Obsessed With Lifelong Learning
We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory — Louise Glück
Prologue: A Constant Struggle
It is rather unfortunate that, at most times, my capacity to unlearn continues to diminish as my mind hardens to a set of philosophies that many would characterize a ‘normal’ life. Also, a barrage of everyday messaging urging me to be a lifelong learner somehow does not seem to placate an already angry mind. Is learning supposed to be accretive or is it a process of creative destruction which involves unlearning old ways to create space for new ideas to flourish?
As a futurist, I cannot help but imagine a world enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) that is also unburdened by the lack of a formal education. A world that would reward innate skills over rote learning. As I write this, it is obvious that almost the entire breadth of human knowledge can be accessed on a smartphone. To be truly adaptable in an AI enabled world, every individual will have to be ‘uneducated’ in the ways of the old world to be able to understand fully what the word ‘education’ truly means.
